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CodeSpells

CodeSpells is a game I'm producing. It's about being a wizard. Here's the main website: codespells.org.

Here's a teaser video we made when we released our wizard soccer arena:

Honestly, you should leave this site now and go play the game. It'll be a lot more fun than reading this post about the game.

Seriously, get out of here and play it.

Go away. I don't like you.

It looks like you're still here. Fine. I shall now do my best to bore you with some history.

I coded the first version of CodeSpells in 2012. It sucked. Crappy graphics. Crappy gameplay. And a crappy in-game Java IDE. It also had creepy aliens for some reason:

For some reason the press loved it. I really don't know why we got so much coverage. Maybe the creepy aliens had something to do with it?

Actually, I do know why. It was because it was "science". I was a gradaute student and I wrote science papers about CodeSpells. Stuff from scientific journals always seems to find its way into mainstream news -- especially when it deals with mainstream topics like video games.

Anyway, I hated this prototype. I always felt that I could do better. Looking back at it reminds me of a time when I was a less talented game designer.

I'm happy to say all that's left of this prototype are some screenshots, some old news articles, and some research papers.

In 2014, I launched a kickstarter to build a new version. I asked for $50,000. We got $164,014 -- enough to fund the project for about two years.

CodeSpells has been in a playable state on Steam Early Access for much of that time. As a business person, my philosophy is to release products ASAP and iterate. Having a real community helps inform how to design games.

Our alpha and beta testers have written thousands of spells, all of which are available in-game. If you so desired, you could write spells and publish them for other users too. Sounds fun right? It almost makes me wonder why you're still here.

Did I mention you should get out of here and go buy it? You could be a wizard with just a few clicks...

By the way, I was kidding back there when I said I don't like you. Thanks for reading.